The number of criminals being arrested by police has halved in a decade to a record low despite increasing numbers of offences, new figures show.

       The number of arrests has fallen every year from 1.3 million in 2010 to 632,000 in 2021, according to Home Office data.

       This comes despite more than a million additional incidents being reported to the police during that period - up from 4.3 million in 2010 to 5.4 million in 2021.

       The data, analysed by the Labour party, shows that response times to 999 calls have also increased, at the same time as arrests have fallen, suggesting police are struggling to meet the increasing demand.

       No national figures are available but data, obtained under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws from individual police forces, shows response times to 999 calls increased by 32 per cent between 2010 and 2018, from nine minutes and 30 seconds to 13 minutes.

       Police forces also failed to hit their targets of answering 999 calls within 10 seconds in one in eight cases (13.1 per cent), according to police data from the independent analysts, CoPaCC.

       In some forces - Lancashire, Greater Manchester, the Metropolitan Police and Essex - it was as high as one in five calls.

       Nearly a quarter of 101 calls (24 per cent) were not answered within the waiting time target - and 12 per cent were not answered at all, according to the latest available statistics.

       Communities growing 'increasingly frustrated'

       Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said: “Protecting law and order should be any government’s first priority. Yet just as the Prime Minister disregards the law in Number 10, his government is failing to back police to enforce it on our streets.

       “Communities across the country are becoming increasingly frustrated when nothing is done about crime and anti-social behaviour. When the public report crimes, they expect a quick and strong response.

       “But despite the best efforts of policing, Priti Patel’s Home Office is completely letting everyone down. Labour will back our police to take action, introducing local Neighbourhood Prevention Teams to crack down on community crime at its source. Britain deserves better.”

       Home Office data showed that the proportion of crimes resulting in a charge or summons has also halved from 15.5 per cent when records began in 2014 to seven per cent now.

       Rape fell to 1.4 per cent, a sixth of the proportion in 2014 when it was 8.5 per cent, a decline fuelled by the combing of victims’ “digital” history on smart phones and other devices, and delays that have contributed to them withdrawing.

       The proportion of victims who did not support police action increased from 8.7 per cent in 2014 to 24.2 per cent in the year to March 2020, fuelling claims the public is losing confidence in the police.

       Boris Johnson has committed to increasing police numbers by 20,000 - and is well on target to achieve it - as part of his Government’s Beating Crime plan.